Campari selling Federated Pharmaceutical for US$14 million

THE Italy-based Campari Group announced plans to sell its Federated Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, a division of J Wray & Nephew Limited, for US$14.4 million (J$1.6 b) to the Glen Christian-led Kirk Distributors Limited.

It forms part of efforts by the Campari Group, the parent company of J Wray & Nephew, to rid itself of non-core assets in Jamaica.

“The deal consideration is US$14.4 million (11.8 million euro at the current exchange rate) on a cash free/debt free basis. The deal structure foresees various post-closing price adjustments relating to stock and other assets and liabilities,” Campari stated in a release posted on its website on Monday.

The deal, which the company hopes will be completed by March 2015, will allow the Jamaica operations to focus on producing overproof rums, led by Appleton Estate. The Federated Pharmaceutical division of J Wray & Nephew Limited entered Campari’s business in 2012 as part of the overall acquisition of Lascelles deMercado & Company Limited.

The pharmaceutical company was founded in 1958, currently employs over 73 people and manufactures 95 products. It exports to Antigua, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Guyana, St Vincent, St Kitts, St Lucia, Trinidad, Turks & Caicos, and the United Kingdom, according to its online company profile.

Campari indicated that the transaction underlines its “strategy of strengthening its focus on its core high-margin spirits business via streamlining of non-core businesses”.

The sale announcement follows a series of earlier divestments by the group in its financial year. Specifically, Campari previously announced that it would exit the consumer agency brand business within the merchandise business in Jamaica during the first quarter 2015.

In August, Campari sold a property by the wharf in Kingston for 2.4 million euro (J$350 million) in order to focus on core activity. The financials avoided listing the purchaser. Concurrently, it announced that it sold a detergent brand for a 200,000 euro loss.

Earlier in its financial year, the group terminated its distribution arrangement for Kimberly-Clark products, which included household names like Kleenex, Scott, and Huggies. That distributorship was acquired by T Geddes Grant.

Campari acquired Lascelles deMercado in December 2012 for US$409 million from Trinidad-based majority shareholder CL Financial, and local shareholders. In September 2012, details of the acquisition indicated that Campari would nearly double Campari’s workforce from 2,300 to 4,300. Since that time, the company embarked on restructuring and announced that it laid off some 200 workers.

Christian, CEO and chairman of Cari-Med Limited and Kirk Distributors Limited, was recently inducted into the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Hall of Fame as its 22nd inductee.

Kirk Distributors, incorporated in 2005, took over the operations and distribution of the Colgate-Palmolive portfolio which includes household names like Colgate toothpaste, Protex, Castile, Carib Carbolic and Refresh bar soaps. They also distribute Ajax, Fabuloso, Soflan, Suavitel and Blue Bomber.

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Campari selling Federated Pharmaceutical for US$14 million

Citigroup selling its Japan retail bank business

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Citigroup said Thursday it was selling its century-old Japanese retail banking operations to major lender Sumitomo Mitsui as part of an effort to shrink its consumer business globally.

Financial details were not released, but Japanese news reports estimated the deal to be worth about 40 billion yen ($333 million).

Under the agreement, Sumitomo unit SMBC Trust Bank would acquire Citibank Japan’s operations including 32 retail branches, 740,000 customers, 1,600 employees, and deposits worth 2.5 trillion yen.

The transaction is expected to be completed in late 2015.

“The sale represents another step in Citi’s strategy of further streamlining its Global Consumer Bank,” the US company said in a statement, adding that it would keep its profitable Japanese commercial banking operations.

The US firm entered the Japanese market in 1902, one of the first foreign lenders to operate in the country.

Since the US bank brought in a new chief in late 2012, it has been cutting retail operations in a host of countries, including Honduras, Turkey, Romania, and Uruguay. 

In Japan, low interest rates, following years of economic slump, have squeezed retail businesses.

Two years ago British giant HSBC withdrew from retail banking in Japan and there are relatively few foreign lenders offering such services in the country.

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Citigroup selling its Japan retail bank business

Ind. cop asked to stop selling "Breathe easy" shirts

Dec. 13: Notre Dame players warm up before an NCAA college basketball game against Michigan in South Bend, Ind. (AP)

Three South Bend city council members want a police officer to stop selling T-shirts that are a response to protests over a New York City man’s chokehold death.

Members of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team wore T-shirts prior to a weekend game reading “I can’t breathe” that reference the last words of a black man who died during an arrest in New York City after a white police officer placed him in a chokehold.

Mishawaka Police officer Jason Barthel began selling T-shirts at a store he owns this week with the message

“Breathe easy, don’t break the law” in response to the Notre Dame protest.

The South Bend Tribune reports three Common Council members want Barthel to stop selling those shirts, saying they send a “divisive message.”

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Ind. cop asked to stop selling "Breathe easy" shirts

Kids selling sex in uniforms

- Using school clothes to attract buyers

Diandra Grandison, Staff Reporter

THE WEEKEND STAR has received disturbing reports that children as young as 13 years old are allegedly soliciting sex in the New Kingston area. Information reaching THE WEEKEND STAR is that some of these children can be seen even in uniform seeking buyers for sex.

Commanding Officer of the New Kingston Police, Deputy Superintendent Christopher Murdock, said he has received information of one particular teenager who is soliciting sex in the area.

“I have received information of a 14-year-old boy prostituting himself at nights in New Kingston from about June, he reportedly goes by the street name ‘Shebada’ and is from the Papine area – his biological parents are allegedly in the United States,” he said.

DSP Murdock told THE WEEKEND STAR that the New Kingston police have yet to get a hold of the youngster, but are currently searching for him.

The senior cop also revealed that he recently removed a 13-year-old boy from the Shoemaker Gully, also in the area. He said that child is in the care of the Child Development Agency (CDA).

Another New Kingston-based police officer revealed that late last year he removed a 15-year-old boy from the area. The boy was in his uniform soliciting oral sex.

“We saw him around 1 a.m. in uniform selling oral sex, brought him to the station and contacted his mother who later came for him.” The officer revealed that the young man admitted to wearing his uniform because, “the big man dem like to see me in mi uniform,” and used that as a pull factor to attract buyers.

Checks were made with the Office of the Children’s Advocate and the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse and both agencies told THE WEEKEND STAR that they have received no information about children selling sex in the New Kingston area.

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Kids selling sex in uniforms

Businesswoman charged with selling illegal rubbing alcohol

A Chinese businesswoman who is charged with having illegally labelled items marked ‘Benjamin Rubbing Alcohol’ in her shop will stand trial on April 16 next year.

Yu Wen of Spanish Town, St Catherine, is charged with breaches of the Trademark Act and the Custom Excise Act.

When the matter was mentioned in court on Tuesday, it was revealed that the forensic certificate is now on file.

As a result, the defence and the Crown agreed that the matter can now be tried.

Allegations are that in February last year, police personnel from the Organised Crime Investigation Division swooped down on the accused woman’s business place.

The detectives went into the establishment and removed several boxes of rubbing alcohol, marked ‘Benjamin’s’.

Further checks revealed that the products were never labelled or manufactured by the company. She was subsequently charged.

Wen is being represented by attorney-at-law Lancelot Clarke Jr.
- R.T

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Businesswoman charged with selling illegal rubbing alcohol